Chapter 2 Melodia

After dinner, we all ended up splitting off to go to our usual places. Mom and Dad took over the living room to watch TV, Arturo went up to his room to play some video games, and I was in my room laying down on my bed thinking about Anna.

Was she going to be mad at me again? I was this close to getting her to leave me alone and now this happens? Was I just fated to have her angry at me all the time?

What had she even been doing in that courtyard anyway? And what were those lights? And what had caused all those noises? What was so important to keep secret she almost bit my head off for almost figuring out? I got up to my knees and shuffled over to my window to look out over to where the courtyard had been. A part of me thought it might give me some answers, but even I knew there was no way…

Wait, were those the lights? I leaned in closer and saw a couple of flashes out in the distance, above where the courtyard was. I watched the lights flicker back and forth before a trail of sparkling purple light erupted from one of them and started sailing through the air.

I watched it with wide eyes, tracking its movement through the night sky until it suddenly dipped towards me. I yelped and ducked as the light shot through my window and over my head.

I laid down on my bed, my heart beating like crazy as I slowly raised my head to see where the purple light was. In the corner of my room was a still glowing purple bundle. I got to my feet and walked over to it. The closer I got, the more the purple light faded away to reveal what had entered my room.

By the time I was right in front of it, I could see it for what it was. In my room was a small white-furred animal curled up in a ball with something red splattered all over it…

Oh no.

I knelt down next to it to see if I could help the little thing. It uncurled itself and I almost flinched at the sight. It looked like a skinny little fox with snow white fur, until you took a second look. On its back were a pair of light gray bat wings. Its tail was longer than it should have been, and the tip of it was bright purple, like someone had dipped it in dye or paint.

And the little fox was covered from nose to tail with little bloody scratches.

“Go to her,” my head shot up to look around the room for the source of the voice. It was deep, and kind of reminded me of one of Arturo’s friends. “No, down here.”

I slowly looked down at the still bleeding fox on the floor who had one eye slightly open. They were dark purple and looked much more human than I would have expected.

“That’s… not the voice I would have expected you to have,” I admitted in a whisper. Not sure why I was focusing on that bit when I had a talking animal right in front of me. The fox let out a weak chuckle before wincing in pain.

Oh right, the bleeding.

“Are you okay?” I knelt down over the fox again as he weakly lifted its head to look at me. I probably should have been freaking out more, but my concern was outweighing everything else in my mind.

“Go to her,” he hissed weakly, “you know who and you know where.” He slowly turned his body to expose his chest to me as a small glowing purple ball started coming out of it. I held my breath as the ball rose up out of him and started floating over to me. Was I supposed to touch it? What was going on?

I took a gulp as the floating orb came to a stop right in front of me. I carefully poked it with a single finger as it broke apart and entered by body. My eyes went wide as I felt a hot feeling explode in my chest. I braced myself for pain, but it never came. After that initial burst, the heat died down to a more comfortable level. The best way I could describe it was as though I had a campfire next to my heart.

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“I’m sorry,” I heard the fox say as I looked at my fingers as they started to glow, “I would have preferred to do this the right way, but I had no other choice.”

“It’s okay,” I reassured him as my hands lost their glow, “just rest.”

“The words… I need to tell you the words,” he hissed as I leaned in to hear him better. He said a weird phrase I committed to memory before he passed out. I watched him for a few more seconds until I was sure he was still breathing.

“Okay…” I backed away from him as I glanced out my window towards the flashes of light in the distance. It was time to use one of my secrets I kept close to my chest. I put on some sneakers, and opened my window before carefully climbing down the tree next to it. No one else in the family knew the tree could be used this way, and they would never know if I had anything to say about it.

I landed in the backyard and made my way out front before taking off towards the courtyard. I wondered who it was I would be helping before chiding myself. I knew full well I was probably running straight to Anna. She might have hated my guts, but she still didn’t deserve whatever it was would happen to her if I didn’t go and help her.

I ran down the street towards the courtyard as I kept repeating the words the little fox told me before he fell asleep. I made it to the entrance of the alley only to hear the crashes and see the flashes again. This time I ran straight in without hesitation.

I reached the end of the alley and stopped as I saw what was going on inside.

Anna was there, running around wearing what looked like a pink and white dress. It was a little hard to tell exactly what she was wearing with how fast she was running and jumping from place to place.

I couldn’t blame her with what was chasing after her. On her tail was what I could only call a monster. It was a huge man-shaped thing with purple flesh and arms that were too long. At the end of those arms were sharp looking claws. The kind of claws which could really hurt someone… someone like a certain little fox.

I could only watch as Anna jumped back only to mess up the landing and stumble a bit. It was a small mistake, but it was all the monster needed to catch up to her. Her head snapped up in time to see the monster’s claw coming down on her.

“Prism shield,” she raised her hands as a wall of solid light appeared in front of her. The monster’s claw hit the shield, not even leaving a scratch. Its whole body froze in place, giving her all the time she needed to get back to her feet.

I finally managed to get a good look at Anna. She was indeed wearing a pink and white dress which looked super out of place. She was moving around too much for me to get a good look, but I could still tell it was covered in scratches and torn in a few places. She had already taken a beating from the looks of it.

She recovered from her stumble and jumped away as the shield faded away and the monster went back to chasing her. I could hear her heavy breathing from all the way over here. Someone needed to help her, and I guess that someone was going to have to be me.

I collected my breath before saying the words the little fox had told me to say.

“Power of the stars, guide me through the deepest wells,” I spoke as the world around me was consumed in light.

When the light faded, I was standing by myself in a purple void filled with sparkling points of light. It almost reminded me of what people said the night sky looked like outside the city. A sudden purple light coming from below caught my eyes as I looked down.

My clothes had started to glow and change. The light faded away and my old clothes were gone. In their place was a purple shirt covered in white swirls and a pair of white shorts with a purple belt and black belt buckle in the shape of a four pointed star. I looked further down and saw my shoes were gone.

Before I could wonder what was happening, the purple light covered my feet and left them with a pair of white and purple boots. The purple light appeared around my neck next, as a purple and white jacket started materializing around me, white fabric flowing down my back. It kept going until the sleeves of the jacket reached my hands and the back of it reached my knees.

The light came back to my hands for one last time, forming a pair of white, fingerless gloves. The knuckles had little metal bits on them that looked like silver.

I thought I was done at that point when I felt something tugging my hair back. It wasn’t painful or anything, more like what my mom did when she used to brush my hair. I felt the light creating something near the base of my hair, leaving me with a giant ponytail.

And as suddenly as it started, it ended. The light faded leaving me in the alley once more. I looked into the courtyard and spotted Ana and the monster still in the same spots they’d been when everything started. It looked like time hadn’t moved at all while my clothes changed.

Well, it looked like if I was going to do something, I was going to have to do it now. I took one last deep breath and stepped out into the courtyard.

It was show time.